I am an information technology major and I interviewed Mr. Hubler, a teacher I’ve had for various ITM and business classes. I learned that he is much more than just a professor! He has worked as a network administrator for about fifteen years and that it is a real passion for him. Mr. Hubler really loves learning and teaching about network administration, and other ITM topics as well. During the interview I learned a lot about what it takes, and what is actually involved in being a network administrator.
Mr. Hubler has to do computer and electrical architecture writing. He also had to do long network system papers, which in detail explain the schematics of the network he would have been setting up for the company. I learned that this type of writing could be viewed as abstract. He said that this type of writing was very detail specific and very tedious writing. He said that sometimes the details of the networks have so many different parts that the papers can go from a two page paper, to a 50 page paper. It surprised me that Mr. Hubler had to do as much writing as he did in his field. Although it may be a lot of writing, I think as a career plan it would be okay for me because it is not creative writing which is my weak point.
On an average day Mr. Hubler as a professor and as a network administrator writes a lot of emails which does not surprise me at all. He says that he always needs to stay connected with many people in his field because of the nature of his work. He said that if a network went down some companies would lose a large amount of money every minute that network went down. I learned that he has set up the networks so they are as secure as possible, but in the world of technology nothing is ever guaranteed to run correctly.
Mr. Hubler said that his main audience for his writing is coworkers and for other companies in which he has worked for. He said that most of the writing he does stays behind the scenes and that not many people even read his work. Although for business reasons, he needs to write out everything he does in order to protect himself from getting sued or something of that nature. I was surprised that being a network administrator could have such a stress level that it does. I think as a career path I would not like the stress, but if it was compensated for in money that I could probably deal with it.
One big purpose that Mr. Hubler writes for is he needs to make sure that things run smoothly, and that everyone is on the same page. He needs to do this because of the high consequences if a network went down or if something went wrong. He also writes because in some of his higher level classes he shares his papers with his students and shows them what they may have to do in the future. He said that anyone can write as a network administrator if you have patience and an eye for detail.
The article that Mr. Hubler most admires is: http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/articlearchive.htm
He admires this article because of the nature that it is written in. When he was getting into the field that he currently works in he really needed to get a good foundation and understanding of the material before he dove into the textbooks because they are written in such a technological and abstract manner. He really liked these articles because it broke it down into layman’s terms that was easier for him to follow. It took away a lot of the technological babble and actually taught him and gave him a solid foundation. I found this interesting after I read some of them because it was so much different than the text books I have. I really learned a lot from this experience because he explained the difference of learning and what he called “do-learning”. He said he used to buy old parts online and just practice setting them up in different ways while reading a specific article from that site. He said most of what he learned he did out of school, and out of the classroom. I really found that interesting and inspiring that a teacher really was so involved in the topic that they are teaching.
Mr. Hubler says that he looks back and sees how he is progressing in his field and that is what he gets out his writing. He notices that changes and advances in technology that he thought were never possible. He gave the example that video streaming would of never been thought to be possible, yet 10 years later we take it for granted. Where we used to use copper wires and think there was no alternative, fiber optics have taken over very quickly in the technology field. I found this interesting because he says that he still learns everyday new things and that with technology it is an ever changing atmosphere.
Mr. Hubler has to do computer and electrical architecture writing. He also had to do long network system papers, which in detail explain the schematics of the network he would have been setting up for the company. I learned that this type of writing could be viewed as abstract. He said that this type of writing was very detail specific and very tedious writing. He said that sometimes the details of the networks have so many different parts that the papers can go from a two page paper, to a 50 page paper. It surprised me that Mr. Hubler had to do as much writing as he did in his field. Although it may be a lot of writing, I think as a career plan it would be okay for me because it is not creative writing which is my weak point.
On an average day Mr. Hubler as a professor and as a network administrator writes a lot of emails which does not surprise me at all. He says that he always needs to stay connected with many people in his field because of the nature of his work. He said that if a network went down some companies would lose a large amount of money every minute that network went down. I learned that he has set up the networks so they are as secure as possible, but in the world of technology nothing is ever guaranteed to run correctly.
Mr. Hubler said that his main audience for his writing is coworkers and for other companies in which he has worked for. He said that most of the writing he does stays behind the scenes and that not many people even read his work. Although for business reasons, he needs to write out everything he does in order to protect himself from getting sued or something of that nature. I was surprised that being a network administrator could have such a stress level that it does. I think as a career path I would not like the stress, but if it was compensated for in money that I could probably deal with it.
One big purpose that Mr. Hubler writes for is he needs to make sure that things run smoothly, and that everyone is on the same page. He needs to do this because of the high consequences if a network went down or if something went wrong. He also writes because in some of his higher level classes he shares his papers with his students and shows them what they may have to do in the future. He said that anyone can write as a network administrator if you have patience and an eye for detail.
The article that Mr. Hubler most admires is: http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/articlearchive.htm
He admires this article because of the nature that it is written in. When he was getting into the field that he currently works in he really needed to get a good foundation and understanding of the material before he dove into the textbooks because they are written in such a technological and abstract manner. He really liked these articles because it broke it down into layman’s terms that was easier for him to follow. It took away a lot of the technological babble and actually taught him and gave him a solid foundation. I found this interesting after I read some of them because it was so much different than the text books I have. I really learned a lot from this experience because he explained the difference of learning and what he called “do-learning”. He said he used to buy old parts online and just practice setting them up in different ways while reading a specific article from that site. He said most of what he learned he did out of school, and out of the classroom. I really found that interesting and inspiring that a teacher really was so involved in the topic that they are teaching.
Mr. Hubler says that he looks back and sees how he is progressing in his field and that is what he gets out his writing. He notices that changes and advances in technology that he thought were never possible. He gave the example that video streaming would of never been thought to be possible, yet 10 years later we take it for granted. Where we used to use copper wires and think there was no alternative, fiber optics have taken over very quickly in the technology field. I found this interesting because he says that he still learns everyday new things and that with technology it is an ever changing atmosphere.